He hitchhiked across the country with only his dog while still in his teens. When he began his latest career, he drove himself and his family all over the nation in a 1971 Volkswagen bus. He makes his own jeans.
“I want to be in control of my destiny,” said Mario Marchese, speaking by phone near his home in Nyack, New York, near New York City.
These days, the destiny of 40-year-old Marchese is to make the world laugh. Oh, some of his promotional material says he’s a children’s entertainer known as Mario the Maker Magician. But his frenetic, zany, partly unscripted and exuberant act reigns just as funny for adults as it does their children and grandchildren.
Doubters can see for themselves when he brings his show to the Columbus Area Arts Council’s free First Fridays for Families series at 6 p.m. Jan. 3 at The Commons, 300 Washington St.
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“Magic is creating a moment for someone else where they forget that reality is reality,” he said.
Prepare for an altered reality of sorts as Marchese brings a group of four self-built robots with him, such as Marcel the electronic monkey, to help make items appear and disappear and much more. To see his whimsical gadgetry is to understand that he lives up to his showbiz moniker.
“In another life, I might be tinkering with car engines in a garage somewhere,” he said.
If prodded, he will acknowledge that his pieces are far more than rudimentary, though he constructs them to look old-school basic and two-dimensional. His supplies that he totes from show to show include micro-controllers and 3-D printers.
“I want children to be inspired to make something,” he said, mentioning that one recent pint-sized audience member went home to build robotic-style items with paper plates and toilet paper rolls. “Those are my greatest emails from parents (about their kids).”
But Marchese also seems polished at encouraging youngsters to make their own fun with imagination and simple pieces. Plus, he heavily utilizes audience participation.
“I want them to be able to take their silliness to others to make them laugh, too,” he said.
However, he is more than a sleight-of-hand handyman with a sense of humor. Master illusionist David Blaine, who once employed Marchese, calls him “the greatest kids magician there is!”
On his website at mariothemagician.com and on youtube.com, the magician and his family are featured in a series of heartwarming clips capturing life on the road, rehearsals, behind-the-scenes building of robots, and the squealing laughter of children.
Plus, making the videos especially vulnerable are the interviews and narration from wife-manager Katie, who in one video says she “hates being on camera.” But it is this very reticence that makes her and the home-schooled family even more human and vulnerable and relatable. Of course, the couple’s adorable children, Gigi, 8, and Bear, 5, make the family picture that much more sweet — especially because the daughter wants to be just like Daddy.
“I want to make bunnies come out of my hat,” she says in one grinning, close-up clip.
None of this is lost on an online audience. Three years ago, a man by the name of Rex Ryman posted, “You have an awesome way of living life with happiness at the forefront — a trait that everyone can appreciate!”
The performer bows to his wife’s managerial and behind-the-scene gifts.
“If Katie didn’t exist, I wouldn’t have a career,” he said of their life on the road with the kids.
“It’s not always easy,” Katie said. “There are times when the kids are screaming in the back seat.”
In fact, she warned of that before the chat for this story as they traveled to a performance near New York City. But it never happened.
Marchese is gracious, gushing gratitude for a media interview as if he were an upstart act. Yet, in fact, he has performed in such far-flung locales as England for crowds of other magicians in special, how-to, instructional presentations. Plus, he still does some private parties for children or grandchildren of celebrities such as Robert De Niro.
“They’re so kind-hearted and appreciative,” he said.
Other audiences have included such notables as comic actor Steve Martin. Amid all his success, though, he readily acknowledged that children as hyper as he once was remind him to remain down to earth.
“Once,” he said, “I had a kid throw a shoe at me before the show even began.”
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Who: Mario Marchese doing his solo act as Mario the Maker Magician with a variety of whimsical and handmade props. The show is part of the Columbus Area Arts Council’s long-running First Fridays For Families shows.
When: 6 p.m. Jan. 3.
Where: The Commons, 300 Washington St. in downtown Columbus.
Admission: Free because of sponsor support.
Information: artsincolumbus.org
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